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Thursday, February 17, 2011

CBS Los Angeles is now reporting new evidence that
officers within the Los Angeles Police Department
(LAPD) may have played a role in the death of rapper Christopher
Wallace, also known as the Notorious B.I.G
and Biggie Smalls.

Wallace was murdered March 9, 1997.

According to witnesses, a lone gunman in the driver's seat of a black
Chevy Impala pulled up to the truck, where Wallace was sitting in the
passenger seat, and opened fire. Wallace died shortly thereafter.

The Wallace family filed suit against the LAPD in 2005, bringing forth
additional evidence that implicated LAPD officers in the death of
Christopher Wallace. The two officers under suspicion are David
Mack and Rafael Perez.

Both Perez and Mack are in prison now for unrelated crimes, Mack for
bank robbery and Perez for stealing cocaine.

The new evidence involves an alleged conversation between Perez and a
cellmate in the L.A. County jail. Mack and Perez were reportedly close
confidants with Death Row Records, the label that
represented rap artist Tupac Shakur, who was involved
in a highly publicized dispute with Biggie. C

In sworn statements, the cellmate said that Mack and Perez were on the
scene when Biggie was killed, with Perez working security:

"Perez told Mack that Biggie Smalls was in his truck----circle whose
truck?----Kicking it with someone else in the truck."

The cellmate says that Perez never said he set up the murder of Biggie
Smalls, but that he strongly believes Perez had something to do with the
murder. There were hundreds of pages of documents in the
inmate's sworn statements that were not utilized in the original LAPD
investigation.

Former LAPD Lead Investigator Russell Poole says that
the documents are crucial and that he was frustrated that his
investigation in to the murder was thwarted when he got too close to the
truth. Poole resigned from the LAPD in 1999.

Poole put things in to proper context by referencing the fact that the
LAPD was already dealing with major headaches after the Rodney
King beating just a few years earlier, as well as the O.J. Simpsontrial.
This racially charged environment, according to Poole, made LAPD
officials squeamish about the idea of enduring yet another major
controversy.

Poole also mentioned the financial incentives of the department for
possibly covering up the truth. According to Wallace family attorneys,
Rafael Perez was on duty the night of the homicide.

If Perez was involved, then the LAPD would become liable for
hundreds of millions of dollars.

Given the LAPD's tattered history of corruption and abuse of power, it
is entirely conceivable that officers were involved in the murder of the
Notorious B.I.G. as well as the deaths of countless citizens whose
stories will never be told.

Additionally, the fact that officers Perez and Mack were both sent to
prison gives tremendous credibility to Russell Poole's allegations. One
might hope that years later, since the dust has settled and a few
bigwigs have retired, the world may finally get the truth about what
happened to Christopher Wallace.

The East Coast-West Coast battle between Biggie and Tupac was one of the
most unfortunate incidents in the history of hip-hop. The gang warfare
mentality of the West Coast, which was artificially contrived when guns
and drugs from outside sources were allowed to flood South Central Los
Angeles, is reflected in the music of Tupac Shakur and other groups of
the day, namely N.W.A.

This kill-or-be-killed mentality spread like social poison with
an in-your-face style of music that translated into real violence that
ended the lives of scores of young black men.

As a fan of both Biggie and Pac, I believe that Tupac was truly prepared
to die. I honestly don't believe that Biggie wanted to die and that he
and his partner Sean "Diddy" Combs were hoping that
common sense might prevail in this deadly game of chicken.

In the West Coast, though, where children are militarized at an early
age and prepared for a short existence, beefs like this typically don't
end until someone is in a casket. Years after the deaths of Biggie and
Pac, homicide is the leading cause of death for young black
males, with gangsta rap serving as fuel for the fire.

But while it's easy to blame the artists for the music that encourages
black men to carry guns and kill one another, we must look deeper at the
gun manufacturers, government officials, record labels and others who
earn billions by creating this deadly environment. Quite a few
institutions have blood on their hands, and we must dig to the root in
order to stop it.

By Howard
Rich
Washington politicians have worked themselves into a fine lather
lately debating spending cuts. Yet as familiar rhetorical jabs are
exchanged over proposed reductions to things like NPR and the National
Archives, the real spending debate is being ignored.

I’m referring of course to the debate over “entitlements” — decades’
worth of multi-trillion dollar promises made by former Congresses that
had no intention whatsoever of keeping any of them.

Once a distant dilemma, entitlements are now the “wolf at the door,” a
present, pernicious threat to the immediate fiscal health of our
nation. Yet as this unprecedented wave of red ink crests over our
country — dwarfing the debate over discretionary spending — politicians
of both parties remain incapable of leveling with the public regarding
the damage to come.

In fact entitlement reform isn’t even part of the budgetary
conversation.
Get full story here.

By Adam
Bitely
On Wednesday, the House Communications and Internet Subcommittee held
a hearing on the recently approved Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) regulations for the Internet commonly referred to as “Net
Neutrality.” These first ever Internet rules were passed by the FCC in a
recent 3-2 vote of the FCC commissioners.

Many have questioned whether the FCC has any authority to even
propose such “Net Neutrality” regulations. One of those who have raised
suspicions of the FCC’s new power is one of the FCC’s own — FCC
Commissioner Meredith Baker.

Commissioner Baker stated that the FCC has overstepped its authority
with the “Net Neutrality” regulations and requested that Congress
investigate whether or not the FCC had acted within its bounds. The
response she received was sad, being told only that the Courts can
decide that at some point in the future.
Get full story here.

By Kevin Mooney
While the nation was still mired in a deep recession, self-described
community activists staged elaborate protests against President
Reagan’s policies in the early 1980’s, a Nexis search reveals. On the
anniversary of his 100th birthday, Reagan is widely credited and praised
for re-energizing the economy and reversing the “malaise” of the
1970’s.

But just before the mid-term elections in 1982, history appeared to
have turned in the other direction. Reagan’s popularity had plummeted in
response to persistent unemployment, which also opened the way for
Democratic gains in the House and Senate.
Get full story here.

Al-Qaeda is probably plotting a number of
terrorist attacks against the U.S. homeland in order to maintain
worldwide attention focused on their political issues, according to a
review of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper's testimony
before a U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday.

Clapper, along with CIA director Leon Panetta, appeared before U.S.
Senators only two days after prosecutors in New York
revealed announced the successful law enforcement operation against a
radical Islamic threat.

Federal prosecutors last
week charged seven alleged Taliban associates -- two of them U.S.
citizens -- with trying to provide assistance to the extremist group’s
military efforts in Afghanistan. The two Americans were identified as
Alwar Pouryan and Oded Orbach.

During his testimony, Clapper stated that al-Qaeda’s ability to
perpetrate large-scale terrorism attacks -- such as the September 11,
2001, attacks -- is weaker than it was in past years thanks
to US operations stateside and abroad against Islamic extremists.

In
his statement, Clapper claims to believe that al-Qaeda’s leadership is
becoming more decentralized and focusing on targets that can easily
and swiftly be attacked without notice.

Clapper testified on Wednesday before the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence, which is assessing how Congress should respond to
international threats. Critics of his past statements and gaffes believe
that the former Navy admiral will attempt to mend his tarnished image
as a counterterrorism leader.

For instance, last week he testified that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood
was a secular organization. That statement surprised terrorism experts
and intelligence officials who are more than familiar with the Muslim
Brotherhood's ties to terrorism and terrorist groups and its advocacy of
Sharia law.

Several terrorism experts have told the Law Enforcement Examiner
that al-Qaeda has all but abandoned Afghanistan. Clapper is expected to
tell the panel of Senators that it has been migrating from its
traditional base in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region to Somalia
and Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula.

But al-Qaeda continues to recruit "jihadists" for attacks on Western
countries, Clapper said. And some of those recruits are Americans.

As a result, law enforcement agencies have stepped up their arrests of
suspected terrorists in the United States recently, according to an
official from the National Association of Chiefs of Police.

“Plots disrupted during the past year were unrelated operationally, but
are indicative of a collective subculture and a common cause that
rallies independent extremists to want to attack the Homeland,” Clapper
said during his testimony.

The arrests within the U.S. homeland and the military successes in Iraq
and Afghanistan, as well as U.S. assistance to Pakistan, are helping
to eliminate the al-Qaeda threat, and so its leaders must seek
alternatives to past operations

As we watch the most incredible of events unfold in the Middle East,
we certainly don't know how they will conclude and it may take longer to
understand them. Social Media, nay, the Internet, didn't cause the
revolution in Egypt. They underlying cause is more likely ineffective
and unjust totalitarian rule. We can dismiss how Milennials are shaping
the first world today. But whenever you have the largest demographic
bubble in history at the peak of youth, and they don't have a just role
to play in an unjust society, they tend to find one.

Democracies look
back fondly at student revolutions, from 1968 and beyond. But what is
happening in the developing world today could hope to end so well. About
15 years ago there was an article in the Economist that I can't access
now that predicted the large concentration of impoverished youth in the
Middle East would push thing to the brink. Were it not for the
aggressive growth policies of Bejing subsidizing the poor in the Chinese
hinterlands there would have been bread riots in a civilization
predisposed to revolution.

Revolutions happen when circumstances are unjust, there is enough of a
body to form a politic and they have the ability to organize. The
internet certainly reduced coordination costs to bring #jan25 together.
But perhaps we have reached a point across the world where enough
connections have happened that people expect the ability to communicate
with a high degree of freedom. Even when forbid by dictatorial or
oligarchical rules of law.

I believe in Egypt enough people had just enough of a taste of free
communication to know what it means. The ability to communicate across
distances, groups, openly published or with a semblance of privacy. And
when you have that, it is hard to picture going back.

I believe where Mubarak failed was not in his believe in his own
power. But they way he wielded it in the end within this new
environment. He let the internet become a terrorist.

While that word may spark a strong reaction, let me explain. Since
the time of the Zealots, terrorism has always been a series of tactics
deployed by the minority to provoke change by the group in power by
turning the people they have power over against them. Terrorists cause
terror to provoke an overreaction by the State against them. As the
State's countermeasures trend towards abusing their own norms and laws,
and take away the civil liberties of the people, the people turn against
them.

The protestor's use of the internet served to coordinate their
actions. But it was also an act of publishing. One the state was not
prepared for, let alone accustomed to. By the time it was amplified and
coopted by traditional foreign media it had something it new it had to
react to as a second order. But not how to deal with the first order. So
it shut it down.

When Mubarak shut down the internet, the people found ways to route
around points of control. But the people also I believed realized that
the state was acting unjustly towards them in an extreme way. It took
away something they had learn to value if not expect.

The US administration has recently grouped net freedom into universal
values, and is taking a stand to support them. I can't tell you how
proud I am that they are taking this stand. This isn't US chauvinism
that projects unilateral power and by direct consequence dismantles the
greatest multilateral system of foreign relationships ever. That
happened with the last administration. This one knows that in the
balance of information arbitrage, the state with information values,
Wikileaks or not, will prevail if it holds true.

This new foreign plank is what we used to be good at. Taking a stand
upon a right or value and building alliances upon which it stands. It is
foreign policy with the most modern purpose. For progression doesn't
stop at your shores when you want to build your future instead of cower
in someone else's past.I wrote most of this on the day Mubarak stepped down to mark it
for myself.

Four late free throws from Anthony Parker and Ramon
Sessions Wednesday brought the Cleveland Cavaliers a stunning 104-99 win
over the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Cavaliers scored 22 points over the final 6 minutes to rally past
a team that has suffered two unlikely setbacks heading into the
All-Star break.

The defending-champion Lakers fell to Charlotte by 20 points Monday
and now have lost to a club that recently established the longest losing
streak in the history of the NBA.

Los Angeles dropped the final three games of a seven-game road trip,
having also fallen to Orlando.
Cleveland led for most of the third period, but the Lakers moved a
point in front midway through the fourth quarter and seemed likely to
pull away down the stretch. Instead, it was Cleveland that made the key
plays while both Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher missed 3-point tries for
the Lakers in the final seconds.

Parker’s two free throws gave Cleveland a four-point lead with 18
seconds left and Sessions made two more with 11 seconds remaining to
again put the Cavaliers in front by four.

Sessions scored 32 points off the bench and Antawn Jamison added 19
for the Cavaliers.

Pau Gasol had 30 points and 20 rebounds for the Lakers. Bryant scored
17 points while making just 8-of-24 shots from the field.

By Allan Lengel
No surprise.
Mexican authorities are saying that two ICE agents who were shot in
the northern part of the country Tuesday were ambushed on a road about
four hours north of Mexico City by drug cartel gunmen, the Washington
Post reports. One died and the other was wounded and is
stable condition.

The paper reported that the governor of San Luis Potosi, Fernando
Toranzo, where the shootings took place, were killed by the same cartel
that has wreaked havoc in his state.

The paper reported that the agent killed has been identified as Jaime
Zapata, 32. The other agent, whose name has not been released, was
taken to a hospital in Houston. They were assigned to the ICE attache in
Mexico City.

The paper reported that the Mexican government bans U.S. law
enforcement personnel from carrying guns.

A press release said that Homeland Security
Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. had
decided to form a joint task force, led by the FBI, to track down the
perpetrators.

Agent Zapata joined ICE in 2006 and was assigned to the Office of the
Deputy Special Agent in Charge in Laredo, Tex., where he served on the
Human Smuggling and Trafficking Unit as well as the Border Enforcement
Security Task Force, ICE said in a statement.

He began his federal law enforcement career with the Department of
Homeland Security as a member of the U.S. Border Patrol in Yuma, Az. A
native of Brownsville, Tex., he graduated from the University of Texas
at Brownsville in 2005 with a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice.

bin
Laden said getting weapons of mass destruction was a "religious duty"

By Allan LengelWASHINGTON - After almost 10 years, it seems like
nothing more than a lot of “what ifs” and fantasy on the part of the
U.S. government as to what it would do with Osama bin Laden if it ever
captured the elusive man.

Still, CIA Director Leon Panetta testified Wednesday before a Senate
hearing on Capitol Hill that the administration would probably take him
to the military prison at Gitmo, the Associated Press reported.
AP’s Eileen Sullivan went on to write “that suggests that, at least
under current law, bin Laden would not be transferred to US soil to be
tried in the civilian court system.”

Bin laden has been indicted in federal court in connection with the
Sept. 11 attacks.
But the new White House spokesman Jay Carney said, according to AP:

“The president remains committed to closing the prison at Guantanamo
Bay, because as our military commanders have made clear, it’s a national
security priority to do so.

“I’m not going to speculate about what, you know, would happen if we
were to capture Osama bin Laden.”

By Allan Lengel
One deputy U.S. marshal was shot and killed and two others were
wounded in Elkins, West Virginia on Wednesday morning while trying to
serve an arrest warrant for a man who failed to show up for a court
appearance on charges of drugs and weapons, the Charleston Gazette reported. Authorities shot and killed the gunman.

The paper reported that State Police troopers and deputy Marshals
were at the home of Charles Smith. After forcefully entering the home,
Smith opened fire with a shotgun.

The paper reported that one Marshal was struck in the neck while
another was hit in a bulletproof vest and a third one in the arm or
hand.

A Marshal and trooper opened fire and killed Smith, the paper
reported.

The U.S. Marshals Service said two of the agents were taken to local
hospitals and the one who was shot in the neck was transported by
helicopter. His condition was not immediately known.

Gov. Chris Christie today delivered a broadside against
the broken politics of Washington and the need for straight talk to
solve the country’s problems in a speech that will stoke talk of a 2012
presidential bid by the New Jersey Republican.

“I look at what’s happening in Washington right now and I am
worried,” said Christie in an address at the American Enterprise
Institute. “What game is being played down here is irresponsible and
it’s dangerous.”

Asked whether he would consider running for president in 2012,
Christie acknowledged that he “see[s] the opportunity” but quickly
added: “That’s not a reason to be president of the United States.”

And yet, Christie’s speech, which spanned roughly 45 minutes, had all
the traditional markers of someone eyeing national office.
“Leadership today in America has to be about doing the big things and
being courageous,” said Christie. At another point, Christie argued
that “we have to bring a new approach and a new discipline to this.”

The national GOP could use Chris Christie but he must be vetted more.
If indeed, he decides to open up discussions of a Presidential
candidacy, his opponents will certainly do it for him.
But, for now, Christie is a breath of fresh air and believe me on the
Presidential stage, the GOP could use it.

Powell's
landmark speech to the United Nations on February 5, 2003, cited
intelligence about Iraq leader Saddam Hussein's bioweapons programme
gained from a defector, codenamed Curveball.

But he has now
admitted that he lied to topple the dictator, in an interview with the
Guardian.

'It has been known for several years that the source
called Curveball was totally unreliable,' Powell told the British
newspaper....

- bth: when Powell gave his famous speech I
believed him. I didn't believe Bush or Cheney or the neocons but when
Powell said, it I figured that was that. So now Powell is calling the
CIA? He has known for years that this guy Curveball was a liar set up
by Chalabi and others. Further if Colin Powell had in 2002 or 3 when he
found out he had been used by Cheney, resigned, history would be vastly
different and he would likely be president today. But Powell is
consistent. Powell does what is good for Powell. He has been that way
since Vietnam. One wonders what the world would be like if he had been a
better man, a braver man.

SCLC TODAY

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